Feb. 19

What’s wrong with this news story? The Finnish media has asked over and over again Perussuomalaiset (PS)[1] chairman Timo Soini what he thinks about racism. The PS chairman always gives the same answer, claiming with a poker face that his party doesn’t even flirt with racism.[1] What’s wrong with this question and the story? Everyone in the story, the reporter and Soini, are white Finns asking about racism. Why doesn’t Helsingin Sanomat ask a minority living in Finland or a member of the Romany minority if they think the PS is a racist party? If they approached Migrant Tales with such a question our answer would be clear: The PS is a populist anti-immigration, homophobic and especially anti-Islam party that is against cultural diversity. Soini is the last person that will tell you that his party is racist. Therefore, the reporter should find more ingenious ways of showing how the PS has issues with racism.

[1] The English name of the Perussuomalaiset (PS) is officially the Finns Party. The names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

[2] Soini claimed in 2009 that he’d sack any PS member if they got sentenced for inciting ethnic hatred. PS MEP Jussi Halla-aho did but nothing happened to him. Soini defended his decision not to sack Halla-aho on BBC’s HARDTalk and on top of that gave him the job of drafting the PS’s party program on immigration.